War of the Demons
by The Kneumatic Pnight
Summary: I don't want to reveal too much of the story, but it's about, essentially, the end of the world. A man appears who knows about the impending darkness. A little romance in later chapters (I think) RobStar, RavenOC, and RavenBB Rating and genre may change
1. Default Chapter

I'm baaack!!! This is my second story here, my first was deleted due to lack of interest… and lack of reviews. So review. I don't care if it somehow elicits no response whatsoever in you… review anyway! I like to know that people are reading. Flames accepted and slightly welcome if there's nothing else there. Why, because I'm desperate for feedback. I just like to know what other people think. I don't know why… but I am writing for you somewhat so I need to get to know what you think. No, not all of you. You there. Yes, _you._ Right… there. points The one in the chair…

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. Nor am I affiliated with any of the former owners, creators, or distributors of any medium upon which the Teen Titans have been sold. My ideas are my own but they are the sum total of my worth (i.e. I'm broke).

Chapter I

The Second Born

The vast sprawl of Jump City lolled out before me lazily, wilting in the sweltering midsummer heat. Underneath the oppressive, white pulse of the midday sun, Jump City forced itself into slow, unwilling activity that was marked by each sluggish walk and each irate honk of an unhappy driver. All of Jump City seemed to be filled with a growing rage, and many thought that the heat wave was to blame. It was a bad omen. But then… my life was full of bad omens… it was a bad omen in and of itself. The heat and the anger… it seemed that the power of my "siblings" had already reached this place… perhaps it had… perhaps that was why I was drawn here. But I was drawn here nonetheless and I would put it to good use. I would be ready when the darkness ascended and the battle began. But first, I would need allies. With a deep breath and a vague mission, I set out into Jump City.

Downtown Jump City had a… 'unique' smell to it, like tainted air and trash. And the humid summer made the smell that much worse. This part of the city was a mix of run down apartment complexes and industrial buildings that belched black soot into the sky. At least… it looked like soot; I wasn't personally knowledgeable enough in chemistry to say what it actually was. I walked slowly through the shadow of dilapidated buildings, watching bums and teenagers walk this way and that over the burning sidewalk. In a place like this, I knew it was only a matter of time before something bad happened… and perhaps that was why I was here. Malignant occurrences attracted the kind of vigilantes and mercenaries who were likely to help me… or perhaps I could just pay some gang. I wandered about for a bit before I spotted a small restaurant nestled between a Laundromat and a grocery store. It was something of a café really--people inside were drinking coffee and eating various food.

Upon entering the door gave off a little, synthetic ding to mark my arrival. Behind the counter, a brunette in a plain red T-shirt and jeans eyed me suspiciously--most of her customers were probably repeat customers. I fumbled in the pockets of my khaki pants for some money and found little more than five dollars. Oddly, it was at that moment when I realized why she must have been staring at me. Wrapped around my shoulders and clasped at my neck was a tattered, hide mantle that fell to my mid thigh. This wasn't normal attire for anyone… or, anyone except me. I was about to say something, to order some food, when I heard a massive explosion somewhere in the near distance. The ground shook and the people in the restaurant either sighed unhappily or began to shake in fear. A wave of people rushed out to see what was happening and where, and I followed--this was what I was waiting for. From just outside the café door, the source of the explosion couldn't be seen, but I was determined to get a better look. Spotting the fire escape to an apartment building only a short way down the street, I scrambled up the series of ladders with all the speed I could muster and made my way to the roof. From there I leapt over tiny alleyways, running along several flat roofs in under a minute until the city block ended and a large, multiple-lane street stretched out beneath me.

In the middle of this street, that was nearly devoid of cars at this time of day because most people were still at work, a battle was raging between a masked man with several robotic minions and five teenaged superheroes. The massive explosion that I had heard earlier seemed to have been caused by a car gas tank igniting when struck by a laser blast, for one car in the middle of the road was smoking profusely and the robotic humanoids were firing laser blasts at the dodging teens. I watched for a while, wondering to myself if they needed help and silently cheering whenever they managed to dodge a horribly close attack. Absentmindedly, my hand went to the graceful golden chain that looped around my belt and the two trinkets that hung off of it. Lifting them as far as they could go, I glanced at them: a silver cross and a simple, circular gold locket. At the press of a button, the locket had snapped open and two faces were staring back at me.

The first picture held the long brown hair and soft brown eyes of my mother, smiling slightly as she stood on a hillside, the invisible wind gently tousling her hair and long blue dress. With her image came bubbling up the memories of my childhood on the many hillsides of southern Russia. My mother had been a government bureaucrat so our lives had always been somewhat comfortable. Unwillingly, memories of the fateful day when my 'father' returned forced their way into my mind but I pushed them back; this was not the time to be thinking such things.

From the other side of the locket was the first girl I cared for, though it was almost two years ago when I had lost her. She looked shyly into the camera with long, silky, blond hair blowing out behind her and her cerulean eyes shining in the sunlight, despite the harshness they had been facing up to that point. I was lucky to have taken the picture before I had abandoned her… one of the two greatest regrets of my life. We were in that arid landscape where I had last seen her, and I had found out that she was unstable--that she had been lying to me. I blew up at her… more literally than one might think… and left her there in tears as I stormed off. I came back only three days later… but she was already gone. I shook my head to drive the memories away; my life was marked by so many failures… so much pain. But I would make up for it.

My mind turned back to the fight raging before me as a tawny skinned girl wearing a purple tank top and skirt rocketed up into the air past me, her emerald eyes blazing with light and her red hair whipping about in the breeze of her movement. She came to a stop several feet above me and balls of green energy formed on her hands. These emerald bolts of energy sailed down upon the small army of robotic henchmen, striking in small explosions that sent robots reeling and chunks of asphalt flying into the air. Several of the robots fired back up at her, bursts of energy streaking from their technologically advanced rifles, but the girl's slender frame dodged easily, raining down more blasts of green energy. Near her, another girl rose. She wore a black leotard and a long black cloak with the hood drawn ominously over her head. Wind generated by her powers whipped around her, sending her long cloak thrashing forward--hiding her small frame in the black mass. Her eyes glowed silvery underneath the shadows of her drawn hood and she raised her pale arms, hands pulsating with onyx energy.

"Asaroth, metrion, zinthos," she chanted monotonously with the result that several cars were suddenly encased in a pulsing blackness that was strikingly similar to that which emanated from the dark girl's hands. These two cars leapt into the air and sailed down upon a clump of robotic fighters, falling and scraping loudly over the pavement. Sparks flew from the ebony forms as they slid, seemingly of their own volition, into and over the mechanical monstrosities. A few of the metallic soldiers leapt out of the way, but more were crushed under the manipulated vehicles and their crushed power cells ruptured in massive explosions.

A titanic green gorilla tore down the middle of the roadway, pounding the mechanical enemies with huge, jade fists; the robots flew aside as if they weighed nothing. However, they still survived and clambered to their feet, firing blasts of reddish energy at the gorilla. Suddenly, the gorilla was gone and was replaced by a small, nimble, and green raptor. It leapt and wove out of the way of the blasts so that they exploded harmlessly into the black street. Jumping high into the air, the raptor kicked one machine with both feet and clamped down on the shoulder of the other with long, sharp fangs, ripping the steel arm from its socket in a shower of sparks. The mechanical hand fell limp and the rifle then clattered harmlessly to the ground while the raptor head-butted the arm deficient machine. It then turned and charged a pair of robotic henchmen that were firing at it, changing to an emerald bull at the last moment and goring both robots on two wide horns. The soldiers sparked and were wracked with spasms until the light in their eyes died and they fell limp.

Nearby, a massive African American man spliced with bluish-silver electronics of his own pounded a group of robots mercilessly with mechanically enhanced brawn. Electronic and human eyes both burned with fury as a pair of huge fists slammed into various crimson robots, sending them flying off balance. As a group of distant steel fighters began to fire on the half-machine man, he ducked behind a nearby car and his right hand morphed mechanically from a fist into a huge, glowing weapon. Lifting the sapphire-glowing gun over the hood of the car he unleashed a colossal blast of blue energy at the cluster of metal opponents so that it caught one in the chest and caused it to explode in a shower of red, offsetting the blue energy that was still plowing into the obscured red frame. The cerulean blast faded quickly and two more short, but powerful, beams slammed into two other robots, igniting their power cells in similar light shows and rendering them twisted lumps of slag metal.

A group of three other blood red robots turned to the mechanical colossus from his side of the car and he was hard pressed to get away. However, before the blasts of energy could do irreparable harm to the powerful but trapped man, the much smaller, darkly clad girl floated down from above, erecting an obsidian shield that absorbed the shower of blasts harmlessly while the half-robot lifted the car up with some difficulty and tossed it powerfully over the shield with such precision that it landed on and crushed the three mechanical soldiers--gas tank and power cells igniting in a huge, bright blast of red and blue light. Without the automotive shield behind them, the half-machine and the gothic girl were open to a new wave of scarlet energy that was, inevitably, launched at them and both scrambled, rather unceremoniously, out of the way. With a flick of her wrist, the dark girl flung the burning, destroyed robots from the half-robot's first bout into their latest wave of enemies, but it did little more than faze them. It was this split second of time however that allowed the tawny, flying girl to swoop down in a shower of emerald energy launched from both hands and eyes.

The head of one robot exploded in the barrage of green, and another was struck in the power cell and detonated brilliantly. Now soaring low to the ground, the amethyst clad girl grasped two more by the shoulders and lifted them high up into the air with incredible speed. This ascent was quickly turned into a dive and the girl threw the held robots down with full force, sending them careening into the asphalt where they exploded in a shower of sparks and pavement. The remaining robot, which was now firing again, was suddenly decapitated as a small, green elf mutated miraculously into a tyrannosaurus rex of the same color. This dinosaur, that just appeared behind the robot, bent down quickly and chomped down on the robot's head with its massive fangs--the body of the robot going limp and falling harmlessly to the ground. The dinosaur spat out the metal head and morphed back into the little, green elf who was now spitting profusely and rubbing his tongue in a show that could be described as little more than odd. Even as the elf was trying to rid himself of the taste of steel, and as I was rejoicing silently on the rooftop--adrenaline pumping from the show--another force of crimson robots emerged quickly and malignantly from the alleyways and sewers down the street and began to fire on the teenaged force. They all sighed simultaneously and went to work on this new small army of machines.

Meanwhile, a teenaged boy with spiked, black hair and a red, green, and yellow outfit--one that was complete with classic superhero cape--was battling a very disparate enemy. Rather than tearing masses of crimson robots limb from limb, he was in a life or death contest with a very powerful, very human opponent. An opponent that had only one visible eye and wore a mask that was half brown and half black. As I turned to look upon this separate, and far more heated confrontation, I saw a momentary break in the action. The caped hero held a retractable Bo staff of glinting steel in one hand and was fingering one of the pouches on his utility belt with his left. He was panting and glaring angrily at the masked opponent, every once in a while yelling some remark at what would appear to be the masked villain's taunt, though I was too far off to hear either side of the conversation. The man in the dual colored mask stood imposingly, holding a metallic staff of his own and was the only human there who didn't seem to be sweating profusely from the heat and exertion. It may just have been the mask and metal suit hiding it, but it made him look much more ready to fight, and much more in control of the fight than he might have been.

The hero charged again, twirling the Bo staff in one hand and swinging it powerfully where it connected with the villain's staff that was moved in a swift and easy parry. The caped boy leapt back as the man threw a punch, and then ducked so the man's roundhouse kick soared over his jet black hair. He countered with an upward sweeping blow from the end of his Bo staff, but the man simply leaned back and kneed the caped teen in the stomach, finishing up by punching him in the face so powerfully that he was sent stumbling backwards. I was wrong, the masked man was in control of that fight.

The two staffs collided again in a silvery 'X' as the two opponents leaned into their pushes, the teen out of rage and pure desire to win, while the man did so with calculated planning, probably hoping to draw the teen into making a specific move. And the teen did it, he leaned back to kick the man in the gut, but the man swiveled on his right foot and grabbed the ebony haired teen's ankle with his left hand, pushing quickly and powerfully against the teen's Bo staff and sending him off balance. Next, the man's knee slammed powerfully into the teen's diaphragm as the man wrenched the teen's leg forward. The breath escaped his lungs in a little explosion and suddenly the end of a steel staff slammed hard into his right cheek, sending the teen to the ground, rolling and gasping for breath. A hand found its way around the teen's throat and hauled him into the air, causing his Bo staff to slip from his hands and clatter noisily to the ground.

I assumed that the man in the dual colored mask said something dispiriting to the hero before flinging him hard against a nearby street lamp. The spike-haired teen gasped and slumped against the thick, metal base of the street lamp for a moment before standing weakly and dizzily on his steel toed boots, glaring feebly but determinedly at his opponent. From behind the caped hero there was the roar of an engine and a car suddenly rocketed towards him. Too weak to leap out of the way, he removed a grappling hook from his belt and fired it at the building next to the one upon which I stood. He pressed a button to make the line retract, and it did, but after lifting him only an inch or so off the ground the metal railing of the building's fire escape was torn off and fell to the ground; the hero stumbled over the pavement but was still in the path of the rapidly approaching automobile.

"Robin!" the tawny, flying girl called out fearfully as she saw the situation. I knew now that this was the moment; I would have to intervene… this was my moment. Quickly, I dropped from the sky to where the front of the car would be and, indeed, I came down just above where the hood of the car was. Before I could fall all the way, I focused my power on my boot clad feet and created a concussion blast beneath me. There was the sound of a huge, heavy object falling against a flat surface, followed quickly by the sound of a crumpling engine block and that of the front of the car slamming hard into the pavement. The metal braces around my legs did their job and absorbed much of the shock, keeping my bones from unnecessary strain as I "surfed" the shockwave and let it rocket me into the air. I did a flip in midair and landed with a slight bounce behind the jet haired hero as the back end of the car flipped over the front and it fell upside down, skidding over the asphalt in a shower of sparks. Six people all turned to look at me simultaneously, as I had just intruded on a difficult, and for the villain probably deeply planned, battle at the near perfect moment.

I took this opportunity to turn to face the villain of this confrontation, who was glaring at me with his one visible eye set in the brown half of his black and brown mask. My tanned hands began to glow with energy that cracked invisibly around the metal mesh that ran over the backs of my fingers and around my wrists. A huge explosion erupted just in front of the rogue and he was lifted off of his steel clad feet and sent flying over the battlefield, landing on his feet and regaining his balance at the last moment. He drew out his own Bo staff again and it shot outwards on both sides, extruding into the long weapon that he intended to use against me; he continued glaring at me. Blind to the full implications to my power, he rushed forward as he twirled his Bo staff; he was ready to dodge anything I threw at him. Unfortunately for him, I didn't throw. My hands grew more bright as I focused my powers and a huge explosion burst in front of the scoundrel, stopping him in his tracks as he realized that nothing had approached him for him to dodge. There was a loud THUD of something huge dropping hard on a flat surface as a concussion blast fractured the air before him invisibly, launching him backwards forcefully. I smirked.

I later regretted smirking, for I wasn't paying attention when a scarlet energy blast struck me in the shoulder. Groaning and grasping my shoulder, I turned to the robot who had fired on me. It fired again and I leapt into the air on a concussion wave, my hand glowing as I pointed it at the robot palm out. A rapid, machinegun-like burst of miniscule explosions erupted against the crimson steel skin of the robot and sent it reeling backwards. Finally, an explosion struck the side of the laser rifle the robot held, the heat setting off the energy cell in a sparkling, emerald explosion. The laser rifle explosion took out nearly half of its robotic user with it and allowed me to turn my attention downward, to where my new opponent was expecting me to land, rushing forward with a Bo staff in hand. Eager to disappoint him, I let loose a concussion wave beneath me, sailing upward on the wave. I seemed to have jumped in midair and I wished that I could have seen the confused look on the villain's face. Landing somewhat gracefully, I charged my opponent and he followed suit. I let a glow of energy form around my right hand as I ran, eager to demonstrate to him just what the metallic mesh around my hand was really for. We came together in the middle of the street and I threw a punch. He blocked with his forearm but it was quite pointless--on contact the energy field around my hand erupted in a directed explosion that burst towards my enemy, sending him backwards with a huge amount of force. As the smoke from my punch cleared I watched him tumble over the pavement.

My opponent stood, scowling invisibly… well, I assume he was. He didn't seem to like his carefully laid plans altered at the last minute. If he had been expecting me, I knew the outcome would have been different, perhaps very different. That was, in fact, what made my one-sided victory so much fun. What happened next, though, surprised even me: he turned and ran. I followed as fast as I could but the ground before me exploded and a mass of robotic henchmen leapt up and shot at me, blasts of red energy burning the air as they sped by. I flung myself backwards and caused two huge explosions in front of me, taking out a couple of the robots but the others were barely fazed. Pushing upwards with my forearms I completed a backwards roll and was about to unleash another explosive round against the robots, but three or four crimson blasts struck me square in the chest and I tumbled backwards. A black miasma pulled its way over my eyes and my body went numb… nearly comforting waves of unconsciousness swept over me.

-()-

So… whadaya think? _I _think that it's incredible that I wrote a near 4,000 word chapter and I only have four words of dialogue. Dialogue is now one tenth of one percent of the chapter. And I'm usually dialogue happy. More shall be revealed about, well, everything. Also, how was my fight scene? I'm usually not very adept in fight scenes. Er… wait… it was almost all a fight scene.


	2. New Allies

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

I know it's been a while… sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry it took so long to get this up, first I got sidetracked with work, and then I had to plan out the path of the story because, if I don't know where I'm going next, I tend to be prone to story-ending bouts of writer's block. However, for all of you who were patient enough to wait me out, here we go. Thank you for waiting.

__

Chapter II

New Allies

I awoke to an odd feeling… that of not being where I was supposed to be. My eyes opened to a very, very white room and the smell of sterilization. It was supposed to be the smell of clean but in the minds of nearly everyone who had ever gone to a hospital, it was the smell of sickness, disease, and death. Beneath me was a hard, plastic mattress of a hospital bed and I was covered with thin, starchy sheets that did little more than cover. Looking down at myself I saw that several electrodes were attached to me, connected by wires to machines that blipped occasionally and made my vital signs a matter of visible record. This also meant that my cloak and sleeveless shirt had been removed. I could feel my pants, boots, and metallic braces still on; I came to the conclusion that they had left them because they couldn't figure out how to unlock my braces.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my fiery hair, my attention oddly drawn to the buzzing fluorescent light that illuminated the room, along with a single window. A window with incoming light that was diffused by a drawn curtain. Moving to scratch my chest, I found that it itched oddly because several lengths of gauze and bandages were wrapped around it. It was then that I remembered my ordeal with the multiple laser blasts… I must have had some horrific burns underneath the bandages. However, I didn't feel that I was in much pain so a sat up… nothing. I stood and still I felt normal; so I fiddled around with the beeping machine at my side and managed to turn it off so that it wouldn't blare loudly when I pulled the electrodes from my chest. No one seemed to notice so I stood and walked around the room slowly, finding my shirt and mantle piled upon a chair by the steel door. The front of my shirt was slightly blackened, but it had gone through worse so I slipped it on and clasped the mantle around my neck on its steel chain.

With another sigh I walked over to the single window that graced this infirmary and pulled the curtain aside. Through the nearly transparent window I watched the surf rush in and slide out against the distant shoreline. Greenish foam rode atop glittering sapphire waves in its journey to the pure, white sand of the island below, breaking over the bright, whiteness and being drawn back out to repeat the inevitable cycle. This island was several stories below me and seemed very small from my vantage point, the sea however looked even larger from here. Cerulean waters undulating endlessly and glinting in the sunlight off to the distant curve of the horizon. I suddenly felt very dizzy from the height so I focused on the sky instead; the sky was a gentle bluish color and stood resolutely against the sea's constant movement. Ivory clouds hovered delicately throughout the light blue, carried on an invisible but powerful breeze that prevailed in the upper atmosphere.

I let the thoughts run free through my head as I sat back down on the edge of the infirmary bed, lifting up the locket at my belt with one hand and flipping it open with a button press. I stared sadly at the two pictures inside, my mother in her blue dress and my first love in her dusky T-shirt. My memory traversed all of the times we had spent traveling until…

"Hey," I heard a voice from nearby and I snapped the locket closed quickly and glared up at the source… it was the raven haired teen with the cape… I hadn't even heard the door open.

"What?" I asked… rather harshly in hindsight.

"Hey… hey, calm down," he said, raising his hands defensively, "I was just coming to check on you. I didn't know you were up yet."

"I… uh… thanks. For helping me and bringing me here."

"Hey… I should thank you for saving my life. Hi, I'm called Robin… you?" He held out his hand.

"Uh… you're welcome. And call me Blast," wow, that name came out of nowhere. "But, uh… first things first: who was that guy in the mask?" Right down to business, that was how I did things.

"You mean… you didn't know?" He looked slightly confused despite his mask.

"No… I just saw you guys in trouble and thought I should step in…" Robin smirked a little--as if he knew just what I was talking about.

"Well, he's Slade. He's kind of our biggest adversary."

"Uh… our?" I raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"The Teen Titans… you haven't heard of us either?"

"…not as such, no. I'm not from around here."

"What, have you been living under a rock for a few years?" I cringed invisibly but shook it off quickly, though my eyes dropped to the white, linoleum floor.

"You could say that, I suppose…" I dropped from the bed to the floor, the glint of the gold locket catching my eye as I moved through the light that streamed in through the window, "but, regardless, I haven't heard of you guys…"

"Alright, come on, I'll introduce you to the others," Robin invited almost cheerfully, walking away quickly through the infirmary doorway, his yellow and black cape fluttering out behind him with his movement. Crossing my arms, I followed behind as he led me through a couple of metal-walled corridors until we stepped onto an elevator. The trip downward ended quickly and the smooth, metal doors slid open to reveal a massive common room. A small set of stairs led down a foot to the floor of the high-ceilinged room, a room marked by the existence of a huge, black television, a television to which was attached a gray Gamestation. I noticed that the two controllers of the Gamestation were currently occupied by the rapidly moving hands of the green elf and the half-robot.

Next to these two electronically dueling teens, sitting on the same burgundy couch, the redhead sat staring at the fighting figures projected on the screen and she bounced excitedly. In a darker corner of the mostly light room, the black cloaked girl hovered serenely, her eyes closed and her legs crossed in the lotus position; her dark cloak trailed inches above the floor. Her hood was down now and I could see that her eyes were closed and that there was a stone set into her forehead. And yet… while she looked rather delicate and entrancing floating there quietly, I could see that there was a huge amount of dark power hidden deep within her that belied her calm façade. Suddenly, I found myself wondering if she was in the corner because it was dark, or if the corner was dark because she was in it.

My train of thought was suddenly ruptured by the ridiculously loud yell of the word, "Booya!" The half-robot leapt into the air jubilantly, followed quickly by a clapping, floating redhead.

"Marvelous Cyborg! What a truly exciting miniature battle."

"Big whoop, he cheated," the green elf said somewhat vindictively up at the now-dancing victor.

"Did not, you just won't admit that I'm better than you."

"Are not! Becha can't do it again!"

"You're on!" the metallic man jumped back onto the couch and was about to start a new game when Robin cleared his throat. Everyone's gaze turned to Robin and fund me as well. Upon seeing me, the three titans rushed over.

"Greetings new friend," the redhead gushed effervescently as she took flight over the couch and grabbed my hand, "A-and thank you many, many times for saving Robin!" A huge grin was plastered on her face.

"Hey, man… feelin' better?" the half-mechanical teen asked in a friendly way, offering a hand for me to shake.

"So… how are ya?" the green one asked with a toothy grin.

Robin turned to me saying, "This is Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire… and over there in her own little world is Raven." He indicated each titan in turn, and I nodded acknowledging each titan until I came to Raven. She was still hovering calmly, holding in check a power that frightened me a little… and oddly intrigued me.

"Uh… hi…" I said nervously, scratching the back of my head and looking over these obviously powerful people, "M-my name's… Blast." I couldn't help but glance over at Raven again… she was still meditating calmly, hovering in the lotus position.

"Don't mind her… she's always like that," Beast Boy answered, before I could even think of the question.

"You are truly remarkable in battle," Starfire cut in, "Perhaps you could regale us with tails of your exploits over unhealthy junk foods?"

"Eh, why not?" I answered with a slight laugh, "I'm starved."

"After being out for so long, who wouldn't be?" Robin asked rhetorically.

"Huh?" I asked, slightly puzzled by that remark, "How long was I out?"

"Almost three days now…" Cyborg began, though I cut off anything else he was going to say.

"Three days?" I asked incredulously, "I mean… I know I was tired from wandering when I started the fight but… three days?"

"Yeah… as far as we could tell, your body was just exhausted," Robin responded. I sighed deeply, dropping my head.

"Well… I suppose there isn't much I can do about it now." I felt my stomach contort angrily in side me, demanding food. "Uh, do you guys have anything to eat?"

"Pizza run!" Beast Boy yelled happily, jumping into the air. I cringed visibly.

"What is wrong?" Starfire asked, noticing my behavior concernedly.

"I… I don't really have any money on me-"

"Not a problem," Robin cut in, "it's on us." I smiled in thanks and nodded weakly. The titans ushered me back onto the elevator except for Cyborg who stayed back for a moment.

"Hey, Rae' Ya' coming??" The floating Goth popped an eye open and turned to the half-robot.

"Alright…" she answered monotonously, though I was sure I could detect a slight groan hidden underneath. She descended slowly to the floor, landing lightly, and walked over, taking a place on the elevator between me and Beast Boy. As Cyborg squeezed into the elevator I began to feel slightly out of place. Though I wasn't as massive as Cyborg, I was almost as tall and was not scrawny by any means; so I began to feel a little like I was making them uncomfortable. Thankfully, it was a fast elevator.

-()-

Since it was almost noon, the pizza place was rather crowded--but it seemed that they always had a place for the Teen Titans. It seemed rather nice to be part of a group of friends eating lunch together. Despite Raven's cold distance, it was very calm and serene and welcoming. This was, as per the natural course of my life, quickly squelched by a sudden upsurge of bickering between Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Veggie Lovers'!"

"Meat Lovers'!"

"Come on, try it… you KNOW you wanna'."

"Man, I don't want to try your freakish meatless pizza! It defeats the point of pizza!"

"Pizza is not supposed to be covered with hacked up animal carcasses!"

I wanted to step in, to try and stop the fight, but the apathetic nature of Robin, Raven, and Starfire hinted that this was a normal, probably unavoidable experience. Raven sighed deeply in annoyance.

"We'll just get one of each like we always do so stop arguing about it!" Raven nearly yelled, just managing to keep her calm. Both Cyborg and Beast Boy shut up at that moment; they seemed to be almost afraid of upsetting her, and I understood why.

It wasn't long before Robin ordered and the two hot pizzas were sitting on our table. Normal talking resumed between the Titans. I, on the other hand, was very quiet as I ate my food. Preferring thoughts to the outside world somewhat, I tuned out their conversation and instead lost myself in my thoughts.

"Hey…"

"Huh?" I asked, looking up to see who had called me. Beast Boy was waving a green hand in front of my face and staring at my eyes.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, man… you're awfully quiet," Cyborg added.

"Yes… I am quiet. Why?"

"We were wondering if you could tell us more about yourself," Starfire responded, taking a bite out of a slice of pizza that looked like it was covered with mustard. I ignored that, having no right to tell someone ELSE that they were odd.

"Well… I was born in Belarus… back when it was part of the USSR. My mother was something of a soviet bureaucrat so our lives were reasonably comfortable--because she could use her government connections to get us what we needed. Those days were… some of the best of my life. We came to America later when my father tried to return; he was a man of… remarkable power and no morals, so running from the country was my mother's only chance to escape.

"My mom would die when I was little more than eleven… she was killed by… my father. So, this picture in my locker is the only thing I have left of her…"

"I'm so sorry…" Starfire said sadly, but I put up a hand to silence her.

"It's alright Starfire…" I said, "My life went on… it had to. And it was this that finally broke my father's sort of weird control over me. I ran, and wandered… doing whatever odd jobs I could. I met several people… people who had powers much like mine. But I never felt quite right with them. I always felt I was being drawn somewhere… somewhere important for a reason I couldn't begin to comprehend. And, until I got there, I always felt out of place. But, about a year ago I met someone who was wandering too. So… we decided to go around together.

"We were together for a couple of years… working and surviving together… we became very close. But we ended on bad terms - I… don't really want to talk about it. But, um… that was just under a year ago. So… that's my life in thirty seconds…"

The Teen Titans were all rather quiet now… and it was not the kind of quiet I enjoyed. This was a stifling, wet-blanket of a silence; one that numbed minds, stole voices, and smothered breaths as it lolled heavily over the area. In fact, this kind of quiet was an all too common chaser to the story of my life, which was why I didn't like telling people about my past. The more they learned, the more they felt sorry for me. And I didn't like it when they felt sorry for me, their pity didn't help; I would just have to keep pushing onwards like I always had.

I suddenly got the urge to say something before Beast Boy got a chance to say something stupid, "Eh, you can't change the past. You've got to focus on the present, and things aren't so bad right now. Right?" Everyone but Raven gave me a slight smile. "And besides," here I leaned towards them, "the world doesn't seem so bad when you've got the last slice of pizza." Deftly, I snatched up the last pizza slice, just moments before Cyborg and Robins' hands converged on the spot, and took a bite whilst nearly giggling uncontrollably.

It was then that Raven sighed, shaking her head as if she were embarrassed, and returned her violet eyes to the tome she had mysteriously produced from within the enshrouded folds of her cloak. I quieted at this and went to finishing the pizza. "Oh, don't mind her," Robin said, noticing my sudden quiet.

"Yeah. She really loves it. She just doesn't _know_ she loves it," Beast Boy said somewhat gleefully.

"I can see that," I said after swallowing the last of my pizza and examining her book, "Ah, Aristotle… fatalism is such an interesting idea."

"No… it's not," she said, her eyes flitting towards me momentarily before returning to the book in which she was engrossed, "The whole argument for it is bunk. Starfire, a while ago, was sent to the future and was witness to a timeline that consisted of the Teen Titans disbanding because of her absence. If fatalism were true, they would disband anyway, because it would have to happen for it to happen."

"Well… I can refute that argument from many angles. If you use the multiverse theory of temporal mechanics than by changing the past, Starfire created a different quantum universe to which she would travel. Because the universal future she visited hinged on Starfire leaving the Teen Titans, than it would be a different part of the temporal multiverse from a universe where she didn't leave the Teen Titans. Thus, the fatalistic theory for that universe would necessarily apply… but when Starfire returned to this time, a new quantum universe was spawned, one ruled by an entirely different fatalistic outcome.

Next, if you consider theological fatalism, the theological highest being--be it god, goddess, or what have you--wouldn't be contained by the simple, trivial laws of space-time and thus is free to view the temporal stream from an entirely different standpoint. Starfire's trip into the future could thus be merely considered as a temporal insertion of a different part of a different timeline. Now, Starfire's trip and everything she saw there could still be fatalistically determined, but the future she experiences in her normal timeline could always necessarily be different from her trip."

"That, of course, assumes that fatalism is true anyway… and that there is a creator that is omnipotent. Both of those assumptions are logically fallible. I decide my own future… it isn't decided for me."

"Well… I agree with you on that. My future is my own… and I won't let it get dictated for me. I've learned the fallacies of prophecy myself."

"Than why were you arguing with me?"

"Because I'm always up for a philosophical discussion… even if I have to fabricate one." By now, Raven was looking at me oddly rather than looking at the tome she had brought. Perhaps contemplating what I was doing. Not that it really mattered… I was quite used to people thinking that I was odd.

"Uh… am I the only one who has no idea what they're talking about?" Beast Boy asked somewhat sheepishly, slouching into his chair. I couldn't help but smile, making people confused was just another part of my life's work. It stemmed, of course, from my youth as something of a bibliophile…

But, my thoughts were cut short when a small (tiny in fact) man rose up over the pizza place's railing on the power of a rocket pack. The little bald man hovered there, behind the view of the other Titans, for only a few seconds before what came next… it was too fast for me to understand what was going on, let alone react. From the device strapped to his back a cluster of a dozen missiles shot, arcing outwards on trails of smoke before going nearly level and homing in on the Teen Titans. They rocketed towards us with deadly speed…

-()-

There… I don't think it's necessarily up to the quality of my first chapter… not that I can easily live up to that standard. I'm not necessarily sure what was wrong with me just then but I churned out chapter one in under an hour. However, this chapter took much longer, not including the planning and mapping stages. Since I'm a bit desperate to get this chapter out, I'm not going to bother cleaning it up right now… it's just been too long since my last update. Anyhoo… this chapter's point was to reveal some of Blast's past and some of his little foibles, as well as to have him interact with the Teen Titans, especially Raven. This chapter, in and of itself, didn't mesh with the story, but I wanted the general effect of it so I jammed it in. As you can see, the story was just about to start with the cliffhanger at the end… and sorry, I just love cliffhangers to death.

As for the story over all, this is the first of five to seven arcs that the story will traverse. This arc has the same basic purpose as this chapter… it doesn't pertain much to the rest of the overall story but I hope it will be entertaining, explain some of the motives and past of Blast, as well as delve into the relationships between Robin and Starfire, Raven and Blast, and Raven and Beast Boy…

I'm afraid of revealing too much more, for fear of getting rid of some of the suspense, but I wanted you people to understand the purpose behind this part of the story, why it doesn't have much romance, and why it doesn't fit with the description on the front. But, if you just bear with me, we'll get to the main progression of the story.

Also, tell me what you think… I'm still sort of needing of encouragement. Without support and motivation, I tend to forget about or lose interest in my work. But, if you show that you want to read the whole story, I'm more likely to try to finish… for you.


	3. Author's Excuse

Author's Excuse:

Woah... I completely forgot about this.

It was just one problem after another until I completely forgot. I know it's weird, but it happens to me sometimes.

Well, I've seen it again, and I still have that spark to work on it now that I reread it. However, more problems present themselves. It's funny how that works out, no?

The problems are, namely, finals and work. Also, work and finals. In short, an incredible shortage on time. I've got less time than Post WWI Duetchmarks had worth.

So, I request... another month I, know, I know... a whole month. That's the amount of time I need to, not only to finish my finals, and iron out my job situation, but also complete the largest chapter reconstruction project I've ever undertaken. While I _did_ have chapter 3 finished, it wasn't in any complete or compiled form, it was a bunch of notes and dialogue on random note cards that I wrote on during classes. And currently, since my place of living was maliciously cleaned without my consent, they're gone.

They were probably gone before that, but I'll attribute it to that so it's less my fault.

And, the writing of this story is a bit higher than the level I'm used to, to be honest. The mere status of retaining my goodness will be a challenge, but one I'm willing to undertake.

So... that about sums it up. Also, uh... random thanks to the review that reminded me that this existed.


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